Trouble shooting utilities

[tuffy963]

Hey all,

I am a bench tech at a Mom and Pop Computer store. I am looking to expand my list of utility software that I use for trouble shooting and repair. What are the little freeware programs and multi-thousand dollar programs that you use to trouble shoot your machines?
This is stuff I use to date:

Memtest86
EZ-Drive (Drive overlay)
Various HD manufactures Hard drive testers
Microscope 2000
GCPUid
Adaware
Norton Anti-virus
Scan Disk (Windows)
Defrag (windows)
3dmark2001 SE (Stress test)


I know some of these are pretty fundamental, but I just wanted be sure I covered everything, I knew.

Thanks!

 

[WW]

here's ones I use:

motheboard monitor for watching temps

msconfig (for diagnostic startup, etc)

ping, traceroute, etc (for internet connection problems)

SpinRite (for FAT formatted drives only ) (can fix a lot of problems...but takes forever to run)

 

[kduncan5]

SiSoft Sandra is the most comprehensive information tool I've ever used. It will tell you everything you will ever need to know about your PC, and even offer generic tips on improving performance. Free for personal use, but shareware for all other purposes.

PC Pitstop for in-depth PC analysis. Plus they have their own Forum for troubleshooting problems found by their analysis, or for virtually any PC problem you may encounter. -kd5-

 

[DaiShan]

Don't forget Dr.watson in 9x machines, and dxdiag.

 

[DigitalXtreme]

I use the Motherboard Monitor for watching temps and Fix-It Utilities 4.0 for pretty much everything else.